Barbra smiled widely and nodded.
"What is it that you need, Yanni? And before you say anything I want you to know that I’m not upset about the past. It’s understandable that we drifted apart. You’re the princess and I was always only a maid."
“You were a friend and you still are. I’m only just beginning to realise that,” Yanni admitted, then got straight to the point.
Even after so many years, Yanni still believed that she could trust her.
“Please tell me, who is the most desirable bachelor in the southern world? I came of age a few months ago and I want to take over the throne. It’s my right, but I also want to find the right man for a husband,” she said, thinking that she needed to be honest.
She wanted to be Queen because of her father and because she cared about her people more than she realised. She’d lost him before he had a chance to guide her to be like him, to be a leader of his people.
Yanni needed to gain the respect of her people—the respect that she’d lost. Deep down, she did want to fall in love with the right man. She’d never given it much thought before, but now it was time.
Barbra was a short, obese woman with rosy cheeks and long brown hair. She knew everything about everyone in the castle, including her stepmother, Ruth.
"Why are you looking for a husband? You need to ask yourself if this is really want you want? You could rule without a man standing beside you,” Barbra said, and Yanni was a little shocked. She didn't expect that kind of response from her old nanny. She thought that she would agree with everyone that Yanni was spoiled and loud.
She sighed, and thought that it was time for her to explain to Barbra what was really going on.
“I wish that I could show people that they are wrong about me, besides there is also another reason. My stepmother wants me dead. I saw her in the forest the other night. She killed a deer and admitted then that she would never let me rule. She looked like she had lost her mind, and was talking about poisoning me.”
The older maid looked shocked, but Yanni sensed that she already knew that Ruth had magical powers. The staff in the castle liked spreading rumours and Yanni felt silly that she never noticed what was going on around her.
“Getting engaged is a good idea, and this could buy you some time too,” The corner of Barbra’s lips curved into a smile. “But I think that you should go after the Ice King, James Fredrick III, then that will solve all your problems. He’s the only man that your stepmother has ever truly wanted, and that man would never look at her twice. Seducing and maybe even marrying him will show her that she can’t win.”
A cold shiver crawled over Yanni's spine. She had never heard of the Ice King but knew that not far from Tyndil there was a winter land, located in the Bjorku Kingdom. Most people avoided it because dangerous animals and locals occupied some parts of it. There had been a lot of robberies and kidnappings out there.
"The Ice King? Would this be the king of that winter land in the Bjorku Kingdom?”
“Yes, dear.”
“I have never heard of him. And Ruth has never mentioned him."
"That's because she’s been trying to get close to him since they were introduced here in the castle at some kind of event back when your father was still alive. Trust me, Yanni, he's much older than you, but if you can convince him to propose, then you will have the whole world at your feet. People in the entire southern world respect him. And if he stands beside you, then your stepmother won’t dare harm you.”
3
When Yanni returned to her chamber the same night, she was too nervous to sleep. Barbra was a good woman and Yanni told herself that she needed to visit her more often. She couldn’t stop thinking about the Ice King who ruled over the Bjorku Kingdom. Yanni was shocked to learn that he had visited her father in the past. She couldn’t remember him at all, and she suspected that he must have been in the castle while she was away at boarding school.
She was suddenly very excited about meeting him. Barbra explained that the winter land was full of charm and people were saying that the Ice King had been blessed with real magic.
Barbra told Yanni that the Ice King had been married before and his wife passed away almost seventeen years ago. He had also been engaged twice in the past. Apparently, Ruth had invited him to Tyndil many times, but he never took her up on the offer. No one really knew why, but Barbra heard that James didn’t want to travel as much anymore after his second failed engagement. According to Barbra, Ruth met him at a ball and she instantly felt attracted to him. This was shortly after she married Salvador, Yanni's father. Barbra believed that Ruth was trying to get closer to James while she was still married to the King of Tyndil.
That night, Yanni stayed up for hours, her thoughts racing away. She was nervous and excited at the same time. At one point, she picked up a book, but her mind couldn’t concentrate on the text. She knew that she couldn’t just sit around and wait for Ruth to make a move. She needed to act fast.
She fell asleep in the late hours of the morning, and dreamt that she was walking through thick snowy fields. In the distance, there were high mountains and it was getting dark. Yanni was on her own, and she was only wearing a thin nighty, but strangely, she didn’t feel cold. Her breathing became laboured, and she had no idea where she was going.
Then the darkness shaded her, and she tripped over something solid and fell into the deep snow. She started screaming, feeling as if someone was trying to pull her into a cavernous hole …
Yanni awoke sometime later, drenched with sweat. It was a bright and sunny morning in the world outside. She touched her face, trying to calm down. The dream was quickly fading away. Streams of sunshine were beaming into her chamber and the clock on her dressing table was showing nine a.m. She had no idea if her dream was supposed to mean anything, but she didn’t want to waste time analysing it.
The Ice King intrigued her and she knew that she had to leave today to visit Bjorku Kingdom. She had never travelled anywhere outside her home. Ruth was away, and this was Yanni’s opportunity to meet the man that her had stepmother always wanted.
Maybe she should have paid more attention to where Ruth had been travelling so often, but right now that didn’t matter. Ruth could chase after her young lovers. Yanni no longer cared. She had to do what was necessary to survive and take over the throne. She could wander off to Bjorku, pretending that she was on her way to another kingdom. Everyone knew that it was easy to get lost in that area, especially when the weather took a turn for the worst. Then maybe once she arrived, the Ice King would invite her to the castle to stay for a few days. She didn’t know what kind of man he was, but she knew that she wanted a chance to get to know him.
Yanni had always been very attached to her father. Losing him too soon broke her. All of a sudden, she was alone and Ruth wasn’t there for her. At eighteen, started attending way too many parties. Her stepmother began living her own life, being away often and she never paid any attention to what Yanni was up to, except to make snide comments about her partying when she was around.
Yanni had never really bonded with her, but in a way, she had wanted too in the past. She found Ruth emotionally unreachable. It seemed like the Queen never acknowledged the fact that she had a stepdaughter.
In the beginning, when her father was still alive, Yanni made an effort, and tried to get to know her. She and Ruth spent a lot of time together. Her stepmother was a little cold at first, but then she started paying more attention to the young princess. Once her father wasn’t around any longer and things settled down, she never renewed the connection.
Yanni wasn’t sure why she was even thinking about Ruth right now, especially considering she wanted her dead. Her trip was much more important, so she went downstairs and ate breakfast, then packed. She swallowed hard, looking through the window into the unknown world around her. It was going to be the first time that she had ever left Tyndil.
Barbra explained to her that the winter land was around twenty miles away,
and she could get there in a seven hours depending on the weather conditions, sooner if the path was clear. Yanni was scared of the unknown, but she was done being dormant. No other man had appealed to her before. She had no idea if she would even find the Ice King attractive.
In the past, men had bought her drinks at the tavern. They talked, laughed and dated for a bit; however, this never lasted longer than a week or so. In the end, the two of them would eventually drift apart. Yanni didn’t know if she even believed in love, but she knew for sure that she didn’t want Ruth to remain on the throne.
Later that morning, she took the horse and left the stable, then rode through the gate. The guards noticed her, but none of them stopped her. They probably thought that she was going to town as usual. Yanni wasn't sure what to expect, but she packed a lot of warm clothes and had her bow and arrow with her too. She didn’t want to arrive in a carriage. Barbra mentioned that the Ice King was planning to throw a huge ball in his castle, and she suggested that Yanni should attend. It was a great opportunity for her to meet the man that everyone was so interested in.
Things weren't as straightforward as she thought, but as soon as she started galloping through the forest, she felt much more confident.
Deep down, she knew that she had to stop doubting herself. This was her future and she had to take matters into her own hands.
Strong winds from the north ruffled her hair, but the temperature was still high. She had a map of the winter land in her backpack. She’d gone to Thomas straight after she left Barbra's chamber and asked him to direct her there. Thomas, as usual, didn’t ask any questions. He was loyal to her father, and she trusted that he wouldn’t repeat anything to her stepmother. For now, she needed everyone to believe that she was still the old Yanni, the one that only cared about parties and having a good time.
The sun had just started rising and the roads were quiet for a change. Yanni was riding through the Amin paths, preparing the horse to jump over broken trees, and at times, seeing farmers with their carts along the way. She didn't want to be recognised by anyone, just in case her stepmother found out that she left Tyndil. It wasn't as if Yanni had to ask for her permission, but at the same time, she knew that Ruth would be furious if she found out about Yanni's secret mission.
Several hours later, she had to let the horse rest for a bit. Her legs were stiff and her mind was racing. She was nervous for some reason, maybe because she had never been so far away from home. She rode for another hour before the temperature began decreasing. The winter land was on the other side of the Terranu Mountains. Yanni wasn’t sure how much longer she had to ride, but she wasn’t planning to turn back now. She sensed people nearby, which was almost impossible because she was literarily in the middle of nowhere.
The trees were high and leafless. Yanni remembered that the dwarves had told her that highwaymen were known to hang around this area. They mostly robbed innocent travellers who had lost their way. She didn’t think that anyone could recognise her now, but she was far away from home. It wasn’t easy to be positive in a situation like that.
She fed the horse to keep herself busy and then sat down by a tree. She drank some water, feeling really cold all of a sudden.
The temperature was dropping faster than she expected. Seconds later, something fell on her nose, melting instantly.
More of the white powdery mixture drifted down from above, landing on her face, and Yanni figured out that it was most likely snow. She felt a little silly and laughed to herself because she had never seen it before, but she’d often heard her father and dwarves talking about it when they had to travel through this part of the world. She regretted that she had never left her kingdom.
Her father, Salvador, had talked about the winter land often enough. She missed him terribly and wished she had magic to bring him back from the dead.
Suddenly, Yanni felt extremely tired and didn't even realise when her lids started to droop. Moments later, she was drifting off, not caring that it was snowing all around her. She wanted to rest only for a bit, not thinking about the danger that might be lurking nearby.
An hour or two later, she woke up. She jumped straight back to her feet, feeling like someone had poured freezing water all over her. Seconds later, she heard someone's screams and raspy laughter. She started taking long deep breaths, trying to get herself together.
Yanni was certain that she wasn’t hearing things, that there was someone nearby. She was amazed at how quickly the fluffy white snow had covered the entire ground. She heard more laughter and screams. Yanni wasn't the sort of person who could ignore the fact that someone else was in trouble, and it certainly sounded that way.
She grabbed her bow and arrows, took a deep breath, and started jumping over the bushes, her heart thundering in her chest.
She stopped for a moment, hearing more screams following a stream of swear words. Yanni gripped her bow tighter and kept moving between the trees, sensing that there were at least three people in the distance. She could see them moving along the far tree line, and knew she needed to be careful.
"We can keep torturing you for a bit longer, but we don’t want to damage you too much. After all, we need gold from your daddy,” said one of the men wearing a thick furry jacket. He was massive, built like a tree, with long scars that were scattered around his forehead. He was eating meat, sitting on an old wooden log. Yanni tried to get closer and spotted the other man. Her heart kicked in her chest when she recognised them from the posters that had been hanging all over the tavern.
Both men were the same highwaymen wanted for kidnappings and robberies. Yanni remembered that they were wanted for murder too and none of that made her feel any better. The two men had a young lad tied up to a tree. A fire was blazing in the middle of their camp. Yanni suspected the boy must have been the one who was screaming and cursing them out.
"Screw you, Marlock. My father isn't going to give you shit. Why do you think he sent me here? For fun? He was trying to turn me into a man," the young lad said, then spit on the other highwayman. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen years old, and she thought that he was very brave.
The other highwayman roared at the top of his lungs and launched himself at the boy. He had long ginger hair and a square-shaped face, filled with freckles. He started kicking the boy and Yanni could have sworn that she heard his ribs cracking.
She couldn’t look, her stomach was turning. By the time the ginger-haired highwayman was done, the young lad wasn’t moving anymore. Yanni truly hoped that he was still alive. The highwayman was breathing hard, then wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Yanni removed an arrow and stretched her bow, feeling her blood pounding in her ears. Everyone knew that she was an excellent archer. Even her dead father couldn't compete with her and she remembered how much he hated losing. The highwaymen were dangerous and she had no idea what they were capable of doing if she missed.
"Take it easy, Vincent. We need the little bastard alive. He will be useless if he's dead. We can say goodbye to the gold, you idiot," Marlock barked, then licked his bloody knife. The ginger highwayman waved his hand and sat on the ground.
Yanni glanced at the young lad, wondering if he was going to be all right. Slowly and very carefully she moved her bow, trying to find the perfect angle and telling herself that she could do this.
"Fuck you, Marlock. The boy needs to learn some respect. How about I just cut him a little—"
Yanni released the arrow and it pierced straight through the ginger's shoulder. He roared at the top of his lungs, dropped his long thin knife, and then slammed to the ground. The other man shot to his feet, bewildered, and trying to see where the arrows were coming from. Yanni pulled out another arrow and quickly shot Marlock directly in his stomach. She didn't intend to kill them, but her intuition told her that they deserved it.
When she jumped out of the bushes both highwaymen were screaming, trying to crawl away. Yanni ran to the young lad, and after she slapped him a fe
w times, he finally opened his eyes.
"Come on. I'm getting you out of here. Let's move!" she cried, and dragged him back on his feet.
4
Yanni wasn’t used to thinking on her feet. She helped the boy to stand and quickly realised that he didn’t look so good. The two highwaymen were down; one was screaming like he was being tortured and the other one seemed to be unconscious.
She slung her arm around the boy’s waist and started dragging him towards the forest, not looking back. Her heart was racing away as she struggled to keep going at a reasonable pace. The screaming slowly faded away.
The boy was bleeding badly and Yanni didn’t like the sound of his breathing. She was certain that his ribs were shattered. Adrenaline rushed through her veins as they continued moving through the forest. Yanni was trying to find the way back to her horse, but she was disoriented. They seemed to be going for ages, and at some point, she lost track of time, continuing to glance behind her. There was no one there.
The young lad looked like he was half asleep, but Yanni was glad that he wasn’t asking any questions. They kept moving, walking through the thick bushes until Yanni heard her horse.
“Are you able to ride on the horse now? I’ll jog right next to you. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. Those two might be right behind us,” she told him, and he nodded, trying to smile.
“My name is Luciano, and thank you for saving me,” he said, and Yanni nodded. She helped him up on the horse. Thankfully, he didn’t weight that much. The snow started falling again, and Yanni had no idea where to head to next.
After what happened with the highwaymen, Yanni wasn’t sure what else she could do. Several minutes later, the snow began falling at a much faster rate, and the temperature decreased even further. Yanni took out the furry jacket and scarf from her backpack. The winters in Tyndil were mild, and she had never had to worry about cold weather. She kept glancing back at Luciano from time to time, truly hoping that he was going to make it. She couldn’t imagine losing him right now. She wanted to make sure he found his way home safely and received medical attention straight away.
The Ice King Page 3
